Terms and conditions

• Participation in the Philips Innovation Award is free of charge.
• Teams can sign up during the Idea Stage. The deadline is 6 December 2026 at 23:59. To compete, the completed entry has to be submitted before then.
• A team that reached the Semi-Final in the Innovator League in a previous edition is not allowed to enter.
• A team that took part in the Rough Diamond League in a previous edition, but did not reach the final, may take part in the Innovator League.

• At least one team member must be the owner of the idea or, if a business based on it has already been founded, be directly in charge of that business as founder, owner, board member, director or a comparable role.
• The team consists of at least one and at most 10 full-time equivalents.
• At least 75% of the team's full-time equivalents, rounded upwards, must be aged 30 or younger on 1 September 2026. Current PhD students and those who graduated after 1 September 2022 are exempt.
• At least half of the team members, rounded upwards, must be enrolled at a Dutch university, HBO or MBO, be a PhD student at a Dutch university, or have graduated from one of these after 1 September 2022.
• Teams with members who are not registered in the application will be disqualified.

The team members you list are your own declaration. The board may ask for proof.

Innovator League. A startup registered at the Kamer van Koophandel before 1 October 2026.

Rough Diamond League. A startup not registered at the Kamer van Koophandel, or registered on or after 1 October 2026.

You choose the league and can change it until you submit. PHIA may reassess league placement based on the business plan. League placement may be reassessed at any point during the competition based on the development of the startup throughout the competition.

That what you write is true and yours to share. That you have the agreement of everyone you name in the team. That you do not include anything you are not allowed to disclose. You keep all rights to your idea; applying gives the board and the jury the right to read and discuss it for the purpose of the competition, and nothing more unless you tick one of the optional boxes described below.

Applications are read by the board, by Business Panel members, and by Kuanta's evaluation software. Everything in an application is treated as confidential, including the evaluation scores and notes and the fact that you applied at all and how far you advanced, regardless of whether it is marked "confidential". This does not cover information that was already public, that becomes public without our fault, or that someone independently developed without reference to your application. This does not limit what the privacy notice describes Kuanta doing with applications.

Applications are not published. The board may name selected startups publicly once they are chosen for the next round, and will ask before using anything beyond the name and one-line pitch. If you have ticked one of the optional boxes described below, PHIA or Kuanta may share more, but that consent runs to PHIA and Kuanta, not to individual Business Panel members, and does not give a Business Panel member permission to introduce or discuss your startup on their own initiative.

Business Panel members are independent of Kuanta and the board and act on their own responsibility. They may only use what they read to evaluate your application: not to build, invest in, advise or work for anything based on or substantially similar to it, and not to file a patent or other IP application relying on it, for three years after the edition closes. If a Business Panel member has a conflict of interest, they are required to flag it, and PHIA decides whether they should be recused from reviewing your application.

Business Panel members are told not to put any part of an application into an outside AI tool such as ChatGPT. If one does so anyway, neither Kuanta nor the board is responsible for that or for what the tool's provider does with it. This does not cover the evaluation software built into the Kuanta portal, described below.

If a Business Panel member breaches these obligations in a way that harms you, you are entitled to bring a claim directly against them under Dutch law.

Business Panel members review applications against published criteria between 7 December 2026 and 15 January 2027. The evaluation software made by Kuanta also reads each application and produces a score, which the board sees after the panel has made a first selection and uses as a second opinion. The board decides who advances, and its decision is final. The learning objectives section has no influence on the assessment.

Kuanta runs this portal and the evaluation software behind it. Kuanta keeps submitted applications and their evaluations to run the service and to check its scores against what the board decided. This is done under Kuanta's legitimate interest in running and checking its evaluation; personal details of team members are removed before any comparison, and it has no effect on how the board or the panel reads your application. Kuanta does not use applications or personal data to train its models. You can object at any time by writing to privacy@kuanta.ai. If you tick the optional box when you start an application, Kuanta may add your startup, with the application and the personal details in it, to its startup database; that is your consent, and you can withdraw it the same way. If you tick the optional box about investors and partners, PHIA may share your startup's details from the application with investors and partners of the Philips Innovation Award; that too is your consent, which you can withdraw at any time by unticking the box or by writing to b.bleeksma@phia.nl, and it has no effect on the assessment. If you tick the optional box about the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards, PHIA may share your startup's details from the application with EO (Entrepreneurs' Organization) so it can assess your eligibility; that is your consent as well, which you can withdraw the same way. The privacy notice has the detail.

Every field is mandatory for submission. An incomplete application can be saved as a draft and completed later. Submitting closes it for edits. If something needs to change before the deadline, ask the board to reopen it. By submitting your business plan you agree to these terms and conditions.

If you no longer wish to take part, withdraw your application with the button at the bottom of it. What you entered stays, so you can put it back in with one click before the deadline. To have your data deleted as well, write to privacy@kuanta.ai.